This is one of the few Lone Star Wayne westerns in which George(later "Gabby") Hayes was the chief villain rather than working with Wayne in bringing the baddies to justice. As in the other film in this series I have seen where Hayes was the chief villain, he is barely recognizable as the same person who played an oldtimer during this period as well as later. After he left Lone Star, he would(to my knowledge) be seen exclusively in his oldtimer role. As the villain, he was usually clean- shaven and lacked his distinctive oldtimer toothless manner of speech and improvised vocabulary. In the present film, he is seen in two incarnations: Matt the Mute, a bespectacled hunchbacked old man about town with a generous mustache, looking rather like TR, who can hear but not talk, and clean-shaven 20-20 visioned Marvin Black, a notorious outlaw leader who lives in a hideout behind a waterfall, some miles out of town. Black usually lives up to his name, dressed in all black, including his hat, in contrast to the rest of his gang and to Matt the Mute. As Matt, he often learns information relevant to his outlaw schemes.
Wayne rides into town as a government special investigator, with the goal of infiltrating the Black gang. No one knows of his real status except for Sally, the niece of the recently murdered proprietor of the Half Way House. Black's present goal is to steal a large stash of cash believed somewhere in the Half Way House and to arm twist Sally, as the heir, into selling this establishment to him. Wayne is suspected by the town folk of the murder of Sally's uncle and others, although Sally knows this is false. She facilitates his escape from jail; however, he has a tough job not being gunned down by either the posse or the outlaws.
Having seen quite a few of Wayne's Lone Star "B" westerns, I would rate this as one of the better ones, in terms of plot, although it lacked the comic element sometimes present. The beginning and end were particularly memorable. Newcomer Wayne walks into a watering hole in the middle of nowhere to find everyone dead, the player piano still making music and a pair of eyes moving behind a portrait with the eyes cut out. However, the ending would have been much more effective if the audience didn't know beforehand that Wayne had replaced the contested Half Way House money with dynamite.(Today, we would probably categorize Wayne as a bomb-rigging terrorist). Also, Sally seems unusually calm in seeing her Half Way House blown to smithereens, possibly including her fortune in cash. I've noticed that, whereas the male actors are mostly the same in this series of westerns, the female lead usually changes each time, giving Wayne quite a collection of film wives. Most of them are portrayed as basically helpless damsels in distress in the setting of the Wild West, and many look like they could have just stepped out of the Zeigfield Follies.
Wayne rides into town as a government special investigator, with the goal of infiltrating the Black gang. No one knows of his real status except for Sally, the niece of the recently murdered proprietor of the Half Way House. Black's present goal is to steal a large stash of cash believed somewhere in the Half Way House and to arm twist Sally, as the heir, into selling this establishment to him. Wayne is suspected by the town folk of the murder of Sally's uncle and others, although Sally knows this is false. She facilitates his escape from jail; however, he has a tough job not being gunned down by either the posse or the outlaws.
Having seen quite a few of Wayne's Lone Star "B" westerns, I would rate this as one of the better ones, in terms of plot, although it lacked the comic element sometimes present. The beginning and end were particularly memorable. Newcomer Wayne walks into a watering hole in the middle of nowhere to find everyone dead, the player piano still making music and a pair of eyes moving behind a portrait with the eyes cut out. However, the ending would have been much more effective if the audience didn't know beforehand that Wayne had replaced the contested Half Way House money with dynamite.(Today, we would probably categorize Wayne as a bomb-rigging terrorist). Also, Sally seems unusually calm in seeing her Half Way House blown to smithereens, possibly including her fortune in cash. I've noticed that, whereas the male actors are mostly the same in this series of westerns, the female lead usually changes each time, giving Wayne quite a collection of film wives. Most of them are portrayed as basically helpless damsels in distress in the setting of the Wild West, and many look like they could have just stepped out of the Zeigfield Follies.